Abstract:
This research had the primary objectives to study the strategies of responding to irony in Thai and analyze the relationship between responding strategies and factors concerning the types of irony and gender in the case study of interlocutors of equal status. Data used in this research were elicited from a sample of 400 respondents, of which 200 were male and 200 were female. The sample were asked to complete the Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT), which consisted of 10 situations where sarcastic irony was used and five situations where humorous irony was used. In addition, data were elicited from naturally occurring in 20 situations. According to the results, the responding strategies to irony in Thai language can be categorized into verbal response, non-verbal response, and no response, based on the order of frequency. The responding strategy to sarcastic irony by means of verbal response can be further divided into five major strategies and 13 sub-strategies, ranking in the order of frequency as follows: 1) Polite strategy, which comprises three sub-strategies, namely the act of apologizing, reasoning, and taking responsibilities. 2) Impolite strategy, which consists of five sub-strategies, namely the use of sarcastic irony, invective, reprimand, warning, and rejection. 3) Humorous strategy, which comprises two sub-strategies, namely the use of humorous irony and pleasantry. 4) Conversation-terminating strategy, which encompasses two sub-strategies, namely short responses and digression from the topic of conversation. 5) Intention-checking strategy. Meanwhile, the responding strategy to humorous irony by means of verbal response can be classified into four main strategies and 11 sub-strategies, ranking in the order of frequency as follows: 1) Humorous strategy, which comprises three sub-strategies, namely the use of humorous irony, pleasantry, and profanity to express intimacy. 2) Polite strategy, which consists of three sub-strategies, namely the act of apologizing, reasoning, and taking responsibilities. 3) Conversation-terminating strategy, which encompasses three sub-strategies, namely short responses, prohibition of the use of pleasantry, and digression from the topic of conversation. 4) Impolite strategy, which consists of two sub-strategies, namely warning and rejection. Upon consideration of the relationship between responding strategies and factors concerning the types of irony, it was evident that the types of irony had an effect on the adoption of the responding strategies, which was accounted for by the differences in the objectives of the two types of irony. According to the results of comparison, the most common responding strategy to sarcastic irony was polite strategy. On the other hand, humorous strategy was the most common strategy of responding to humorous irony. Regarding the relationship between responding strategies and gender, it was found that gender had a partial effect on the adoption of the responding strategies to both types of irony. In other words, there were statistically significant differences in the responding strategies at a p-value of less than 0.05.